When ten-year-old Jake's widowed mother breaks her leg just before Christmas while her sister and best friend are both away, a grandfather Jake barely remembers must come to Baltimore, Maryland, to help a neighbor take care of him.

Elijah, seventeen, has always been sure of just one thing--basketball--and believes it will be his way out of West Baltimore, but when gang violence knocks him down, helping a veteran repair his rickety home helps Elijah see what really matters.

Thirteen-year-old Cody Parker moves to Baltimore, Maryland, where as a fat eighth-grader, he has to deal with brutal teasing from a baseball teammate, and his school is beset by a rash of mysterious thefts that threaten to sideline Cody and ruin a golden season for his team.

Propelled by his best friend's impending move out of state and inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off, sixteen-year-old Harrison plans a farewell through Baltimore that includes a road trip, their first Pride, and a rooftop dance party.

High school junior Alex has just begun dating when he begins to realize his true identity as a young woman named Sasha Masha. Alex just wants to be a Real Boy, to feel like he belongs in his home, his family, his skin. Then comes Tracy, who thinks he's adorably awkward, who loves Alex's goofy smile and his awkwardness. When they begin dating, Alex feels strange in his role of "boyfriend." In his daydreams, Alex tries on dresses and swipes on lipstick.Then...

"Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania--derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever. In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities--and Jane is studying to become an Attendant,...